2 Corinthians 7:8-12, "I know I distressed you greatly with my letter. Although I felt awful at the time, I don't feel at all bad now that I see how it turned out. The letter upset you, but only for a while. Now I'm glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss. Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets. And now, isn't it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You're more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you've come out of this with purity of heart. And that is what I was hoping for..." (The Message)
No one likes to hear, they have been living wrong. Trust me, no one wants to tell someone else they are headed for death. I have been on both sides of the scolding, and both sides I have loathed. When I was young, I was often getting the oral punishment. I hated it and wanted to tell the other person "they were wrong," so that I could go and do my own thing. But, now that I am older, I just hope these younger ones will listen to someone who has already been there.
Paul is speaking here about two different kinds of sorrow. There is a sorrow for the consequences, that inevitably always come. And, their is a sorrow that leads to repentance, a change in our hearts, so that change in behavior inevitably follows. If it is a sorrow for only the consequences, we are doomed to stay in our life of sin. I did this for many years. I was always looking forward to the times when, I thought, I was getting away with "it" and just having fun. It was worth the risk, for my heart about the matter had not changed. The sorrow that leads to repentance is a godly sorrow. It is a sorrow that hits us in our hearts. It takes us to our knees and allows God to finally control our life. This sorrow and true repentance is the gift that He gives us, just before we are born again, fresh and new with Him. This sorrow gives life. The other, only leads us further and further from truth, deeper and deeper into unfathomable consequences.
If we will open our eyes just long enough to see who really loves us, maybe we will be able to listen. If we can listen to their reproach, then maybe we can hear Him calling us to a better life. If we will just listen enough, and stay long enough, then maybe we can see what true living is all about.
Oswald Chambers, "We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith— faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself... Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation... Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him— a faith that says, 'I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.'"
When my heart first began to change, I did not trust that I would enjoy a new life more. I did not have enough faith in God to see the boredom through, so that His true light could be felt. God had to strip me of everything that I was holding on to, and He had to reveal just how detestable I really was. For then, my blinders were removed and I could see myself for what I really was, a fallen, sinful woman, who was dying more, every day. This took time, for there was a war within me. The war eventually boiled down to, "do I believe in God?" Everything that we do, all boils down to this. Do you believe in God? Do you trust Him enough to finally let go and follow what He wants for your life? For what His true desire for is, is for us find out what true living is all about. Has someone come to you lately with a scold or a concern for your behavior? Are you willing to allow them to love you enough, for you to listen? What kind of sorrow do you feel? Is it a sorrow for consequences, or for a repentant heart?
http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/my-utmost-for-his-highest/10/31/devotion.aspx?year=2009
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